“Playing it safe is no longer playing it smart. Elected officials are under intense pressure to innovate: to purposely generate and implement fresh solutions, adopt continuous improvement and pursue planned change. Forward thinking elected officials understand that innovation and progress are inextricably linked.”
The above paragraph is from, The Elected Official as Chief Innovation Officer, a column by Patrick Ibarra. Playing it safe is what we did with the Moody Street sidewalks. Why take a chance at doing something great when we can just do more of the same.
Ibarra goes on to say that “innovation, at its core, is an act of leadership”. He explains that innovation is fostered by three key behaviors that leaders can practice and inspire in others: be curious, challenge current perspectives and create freedom.
Find out what's happening in Walthamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
As cities all around us are coming up with ways to compete for new businesses, we continue with business as usual and seem very reluctant to change. Look around folks, it hasn’t been working. We need to be challenging all our city employees to come up with better more efficient ways to do their jobs. We need to give our employees the tools they need to get their job done quickly and correctly. Government is a service industry and should be run like one.
We have to streamline the approval process for good projects so that we don’t have to tell someone at the beginning of the process that they should plan on asking for an extension of time for their approval. It is time to refuse to except average and to strive for excellence. Playing it safe may win the next election but taking a chance with a new way of looking at a problem is what creates a great city.
